After my trusted Canon S50 died recently, I started my search for a new camera (which was necessary because the cost of repairing it was equivalent to buying a new one). Interestingly, Canon has not announced any new camera in the 'S series' after the S80. The home page at Powershot.com does not show any camera in the S series, a flagship high end camera line, sharing the same sensor and lens from the acclaimed G series.
My search started with the typical prosumer cameras. I shortlisted the following.
Kodak P880. Arguably, one of the best Kodak SLR-like cameras ever created. A wide angle (24-140mm) lens, 8 Megapixels and an asking price of INR 22k at JJMehta made it highly tempting. Unfortunately, it is discontinued now by Kodak. If I get it for 15-16K today, I will definitely buy it as a backup camera.
Fujifilm S9600. Another nice enthusiast camera. Though the 10 megapixel sensor is known to be little noisy, the overall reception for this camera is pretty good. 10x superzoom means this is a real bargain.
Fujifilm S6500FD. Similar in feature set to the above camera, but with a lower resolution of 6 megapixels. But the sensor used is the same as in the ultra populer Fujifilm F30 - that means very good low light capabilities.
Panasonic FZ50. Probably the best prosumer camera out there in the market in terms of image quality. Looks and feels like a Digital SLR. But still, the focussing times are not good as a DSLR.
Other cameras I considered include the Canon G7 too.
After some extensive research, I dropped the idea of going for a prosumer camera. My main concerns were:
- The incredible depth of field offered by these cameras. You cannot be so creative when you can't control the DoF on your camera. Getting blurred backgrounds/isolation shots in these kind of cameras is too difficult, if not impossible.
- Slow auto focus. This is a bane for all amateur cameras out there.
- Poor low light capabilities.
Again, I was using a camera with SLR like feature set for more than 3 years. So I thought it is high time to take the plunge. The only problem being my budget. It was very tight. I had a max of INR 30k (which is about $720 in today's excahnge rates).
When I looked out searching for low end SLRs, the following are what I found.
Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi). A superb 10 MP camera from the leader. But way out of my budget. Has all the features an amateur photographer needs. Add a self-cleaning sensor and you have a winner here. But unfortunately, it was way out of my budget. It costs around 44k in the Indian market now with the kit lens. Another reason I dropped this from my list was the poor reviews the kit lens got. I did not consider the EOS 350D(Digital Rebel XT) as it is almost one generation old now.
Pentax K100D. I almost bought this. Has all the features provided by EOS400D. The reviews all appreciate the excellent image quality produced by the camera. An innovative feature of the camera is image stabilization at sensor level, which means that any lens mounted on this camera becomes a IS/VR lens! The price is less than 30k, which means a real bargain. But I dropped the idea at the last moment because of the poor availablility of Pentax accessories in India and the almost non-existent after sales support.
Nikon D40/D40x. That leaves me with only one option, the Nikon D40/D40x. Sure, it misses quite a few features when compared to the above two. Prominent among them is the lack of a DoF preview button, missing auto bracketing, auto focus ability only with AF-S lenses and a 3 point focus system. Everything else goes well for this camera. A nice and bright 2.5 inch LCD, small and a light body and a very good kit lens. Though AF-S lenses where initially expensive, these days the prices have reduced to a level where they are very affordable. So why the D40 and not D40x? While 6 MP to 10 MP pixels looks like a big difference in terms of sheer number of pixels, the effective size of the final photograph when printed, is not significantly different . The D40x gives a better cropping freedom though. Read this if you need a little more explanation on this. For the extra money I spend on the D40x, I can very well buy the Nikon 55-200 mm VR lens, which will be great for shooting outdoors.
So, thats the story. In the coming days, I will post my experiences with this little camera.
Related: Some close up shots taken with my Nikon D40.
